Investigation of the Fires at Tjeldbergodden and Hammerfest Now Concluded

Equinor’s internal investigations following the fires at Hammerfest LNG and Tjeldbergodden have now been concluded and the results submitted to the Petroleum Safety Authority.

The fire at Hammerfest LNG occurred on 28 September, while the fire at Tjeldbergodden took place on 2 December 2020.

“Both fires at the onshore facilities in 2020 were very serious. These incidents have made a deep impression on everyone who was involved or affected. The emergency response effort helped ensure that no one was injured. I want to commend the efforts and commitment exhibited by our employees, suppliers and the local communities to return the facilities to safe operation,” says Irene Rummelhoff, Equinor’s executive vice president, Marketing, Midstream & Processing.

The incidents in 2020 triggered a comprehensive improvement effort within safety at the onshore facilities.

“We didn’t waste any time in taking steps to ensure that incidents like this never occur again. The findings in both investigation reports will be followed up with measures designed to reinforce and enhance the safety work at the onshore facilities and in Equinor in general,” says Rummelhoff, referring to the improvement work initiated at the onshore facilities from the autumn of 2020:

• 175 different departments at the onshore facilities have conducted time-outs for safety to reflect on improvement items and weak signals.
• The “OPL Next Step” project involves continued work on initiatives from “time-out for safety”, as well as improvement areas identified following audits, investigations and internal verifications.
• A project has also been set up to capture lessons learned and establish measures linked to underlying causes related to organisation, management and control.
• We are implementing new management training programmes for more than 180 managers at the onshore facilities.
• Analyses of the entire onshore facility organisation are in progress to identify measures within the areas of capacity and competence that can strengthen safety.
• We are bolstering our recruitment of engineering resources within electrical disciplines and up to 50 skilled workers are bound for the onshore facilities. Additional efforts aimed at other recruitment in general will be assessed as needed.

“The safety delegate service at Equinor’s onshore facilities takes a very serious view of the incidents last year, and is ready to contribute as a constructive collaboration partner to further enhance safety. Generally speaking, the safety delegate service in the company’s onshore organisation is well-equipped to carry out its role in relation to a fully prudent working environment. We take a positive view of the work now initiated with a focus on the root causes of our challenges. This takes place in a joint effort via working groups composed of the various parties, where we look forward to contributing with a particular focus on the framework conditions for safe operations and safe work,” says coordinating senior safety delegate in the Equinor ASA onshore organisation, Lars Christian Kronstadt, on behalf of the safety delegate service at the onshore facilities in Equinor ASA.